Barbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca en
Nationality
BR
Year of birth
1980 / 1975
Biography
Linked to the notion of resistance inherent in capoeira, in the early twentieth century frevo dancing was set to military fanfares at carnival time, before evolving into a quasi-acrobatic art celebrated as an authentic tradition. Recognised by UNESCO as a form of intangible cultural heritage in 2012, the dance passed from the street to the stage, and its circulation is strongly promoted by the local government as the foremost performing art for the economy of northeast Brazil. Faz que vai deconstructs frevo’s festive image, articulating how new subjectivities are shaping and interrogating both the genre and the socio-economic issues at stake in it. Faz que vai profiles four dancers in a series of commentaries on the relationships between movement, the body and the video camera, and reflects on how notions of the carnivalesque are used as diverse strategies for preserving frevo as image, heritage and product.
Barbara Wagner (BR, 1980, based in Recife) is a journalist and photographer whose work explores the media manipulation of public perception. Benjamin de Búrca (BR, 1975, based in Recife) , Irish and born in Germany, works with painting, photography and video. They have been collaborating since 2011, studying collective practices and traditional rituals. Wagner and de Burca have participated in the 33rd Panorama de Arte Brasileira (São Paulo), the 36th EVA International in Limerick, the 32nd São Paulo Biennial and the 5th Skulptur Projekte Münster. In 2019 they represented Brazil at the Brazilian Pavilion in the Venice Biennale.